Chapter 5

Beauty felt very grateful for his kindness. She wished herself in her father's cottage, and immediately she was at the door.

Full of joy, she entered the house, ran to her father's room, and fell on her knees by his bedside and kissed him. His illness had been much increased by fretting for poor Beauty, who he thought had long since died, either from fear or by the cruel monster. He was overcome with joy on finding her still alive. He now soon began to recover under the affectionate nursing of Beauty. The two sisters were very much annoyed at Beauty's return, for they had hoped that the Lion would have destroyed her. They were greatly annoyed to see her so superbly dressed, and felt extremely vexed to think that Beauty should have clothes as splendid as a queen's, whilst they could not get anything half so fine.

Beauty related all that had passed in the Beast's palace, and told them of her promise to return on such a day. The two sisters were so very jealous that they determined to ruin her prospects if possible. The eldest said to the other: "Why should this minx be better off than we are? Let us try to keep her here beyond the time; the monster will then be so enraged with her for breaking her promise, that he will destroy her at once when she returns." "That is well thought of," replied the sister. "We will keep her."

In order to succeed, they treated Beauty with the greatest affection, and the day before her intended departure they stole the rose which she had told them was the means of conveying her in an instant wherever she might wish. Beauty was so much affected by their kindness that she was easily persuaded to remain a few days. In the meantime the envious sisters thought of enriching themselves by means of the rose, and they accordingly wished themselves in some grand place. Instead of being carried away as they expected, the rose withered, and they heard a most terrible noise, which so alarmed them that they threw down the flower and hid themselves.

Beauty was greatly troubled at the loss of her rose, and sought everywhere for it, but in vain. She happened, however, to enter her sisters' room, and, to her great joy, saw it lying withered on the floor; but as soon as she picked it up, it at once recovered all its freshness and beauty. She then remembered her broken promise, and, after taking leave of her father, she wished herself in the Beast's palace, and in an instant she was transported thither. Everything was just as she had left it; but the sweet sounds of music which used to greet her were now hushed, and there was an air of apparent gloom hanging over everything. She herself felt very melancholy, but she knew not why.

At the usual time she expected a visit from the Lion, but no Lion appeared. Beauty, wondering what all this could mean, now reproached herself for her ingratitude in not having returned as she promised. She feared the poor Beast had died of grief, and she thought that she could have married him rather than suffer him to die. She resolved to seek him in the morning in every part of the palace. After a miserable and sleepless night, she arose early and ran through every apartment, but no Lion could be seen. With a sorrowful heart she went into the garden, saying, "Oh that I had married the poor Lion who has been so kind to me; for, terrible though he is, I might have saved his life. I wish I could once more see him."

At that moment she arrived at a plot of grass where the poor Lion lay as if dead. Beauty ran toward him, and knelt by his side, and seized his paw.

He opened his eyes and said: "Beauty, you forgot your promise, in consequence of which I must die."

"No, dear Lion," exclaimed Beauty, weeping, "no, you shall not die. What can I do to save you?"

"Will you marry me?" asked he.

"Yes," replied Beauty, "to save your life."

No sooner had these words passed her lips than the lion-form disappeared, and she saw at her feet a handsome Prince, who thanked her for having broken his enchantment. He told her that a wicked magician had condemned him to wear the form of a lion until a beautiful lady should consent to marry him; a kind fairy had, however, given him the magic rose to help him.

At the same instant that the Prince was changed the whole palace became full of courtiers, all of whom had been rendered invisible when the Prince was enchanted.

The Prince now led Beauty into the palace, where she found her father. The Prince related all to him, and asked him to allow Beauty to become his wife, to which he cheerfully assented, and the nuptials were solemnized with great rejoicing.

The good fairy appeared to congratulate the Prince on his deliverance and on his marriage with Beauty. As for the two sisters, she punished them severely for their jealous and unkind behavior. But the Prince and his wife Beauty lived happily together in the royal palace for many, many years.

PRINCE DARLING

Once upon a time there was a young Prince who was so well liked by everyone in the kingdom where he lived that they named him Prince Darling.

This boy's father, the King, was a very good man, and his subjects loved and respected him for his justness and kindness. The King loved his son greatly, and he loved his subjects, too. He was very anxious to have his son grow up to be a splendid man, and a just ruler for his people. The King was no longer young, and he knew that it would not be many years before his son would be left without a father's advice. He knew, too, that the boy would succeed to the throne, and would have to see that everyone in the kingdom was treated justly and kindly.

One day a strange thing happened. The King was out hunting, when suddenly a little white rabbit leaped into his arms. The rabbit seemed to think that in the King's arms it would find protection from the dogs that were chasing it, and had nearly run it down. And the rabbit was right; for the King stroked the trembling creature gently, and said:

"The dogs shan't get you now, poor bunny!" Then the King took the rabbit home, and saw that the best care was given it.

That night, after everyone else had gone to bed, the King sat alone thinking about Prince Darling. Suddenly a beautiful lady seemed to come into the room. She was dressed in pure white, and wore a wreath of white roses on her golden hair.

"You don't recognize me, do you?" she asked in a lovely, clear voice. "I am the rabbit you rescued from the dogs in the forest this afternoon. The rabbit was really the Fairy Truth. I took the shape of a rabbit to see whether you were really as good as everyone said. Now I know you are, and I shall always be your friend. Isn't there something you want, above everything else in the world, which I can give you to repay you for your goodness to me?"

The King was amazed by the lovely Fairy and her wonderful offer. He thought at once that if only he could win the friendship of the Fairy Truth for Prince Darling, all would be well. So he said:

"Good Fairy, above all things I should like to know that you would be my son's friend. Will you?"

"Gladly. I will make him the richest or the handsomest or the most powerful Prince in the world. Which shall it be?" the Fairy inquired.

"I would not ask any of those things, good Fairy, but I would have him good, the best instead of the richest of princes. If he is good and his conscience does not trouble him, I am sure he will be happy. Riches and power and good looks, without goodness, cannot make him happy."

"That is all true," said the Fairy, "and I will do all I can to make Prince Darling good. He will have to do most of it himself, though. I can only advise him, praise him when he is good, and scold him when he is bad. But I will do all I can."

Not long after this strange happening the King died, and Prince Darling became King in his father's place. The Fairy Truth remembered her promise, and came to the palace with a present for Prince Darling.

"This little gold ring," she said, as she slipped it on his finger, "is my gift to you. I promised your father that I would be your friend. This ring will help you to keep my friendship. When it pricks you, you will know you have done something mean or unkind. It will warn you to stop doing such things. If you stop, I will be your friend; if you keep on doing wicked things, I will become your enemy."

Before Prince Darling could say a word the Fairy vanished.

The Prince was curious to know whether the ring really would do as the Fairy said. But he never felt a single prick from the ring. Then one day he was badly pricked. He came home from hunting in a horrid temper, and kicked his unoffending little dog, that was trying to be friendly, until it howled with pain.

"Really, Prince Darling, that is too bad of you." The Fairy's voice sounded quietly in his ear. "You lost your temper because things did not go just to suit you. Even if you are a prince, the world cannot always run just to suit your whims. What's worse, you hurt a poor creature who loves you. I don't think that's being the sort of a prince your father would be proud of, do you?"

The Prince was greatly embarrassed, and thrust his hands deep into his pockets to make himself seem full-grown up--so he would not cry! He promised to be good forever after.

But he wasn't, and the ring pricked him often. After a time he paid hardly any attention to the ring at all. Finally he made up his mind that a prince ought to be able to decide for himself what was right or wrong. Besides, the ring pricked so hard and so often that it made his finger bleed. So he threw it away entirely.

Just after this he met Celia, the loveliest girl he had ever seen. It seemed to him he could never be happy until he had made her his wife; and he lost no time in asking her to marry him.

"Sire, I cannot," said the girl.

The Prince was indignant, for he thought any girl should be proud to have him offer to marry her and make her Queen.

"Sire," Celia went on, "you are handsome and rich and powerful, I know; but the man I marry must be good."

This speech made the Prince so angry that he ordered his men to take Celia off to the palace as a prisoner.

Now, the Prince had a foster-brother who was a very wicked man. When the Prince told him about Celia, he said:

"What! a peasant girl refuse to marry the Prince! How ridiculous! The whole kingdom would laugh if they knew about it."

This speech hurt the Prince's pride, and he decided to make Celia consent to marry him at any cost. He rushed off to find her. His men had given him the key to the cell where they had imprisoned her. But the cell was quite empty.

The Prince was terribly angry, and swore that he would put to death the person who had helped Celia to escape. It happened that this threat gave some of the Prince's wicked friends the very chance they wanted to get rid of the Prince's tutor, an old nobleman whom they all hated because he was good.

Soon these wicked men had everyone in the court whispering: "Yes, it was Suliman who helped Celia escape." Some men even were found who swore that Suliman himself had told them about it. When the Prince heard it he was still more angry. To think that his old tutor could treat him so! He ordered his men to arrest the supposed offender, put him in chains, as if he were a murderer, and bring him to court.

No sooner was the order given than there was a tremendous roar of thunder. The ground was still shaking when the Fairy Truth appeared.

"Until now, Prince Darling," the fairy said sternly, "I have been very gentle with you. You have been very wicked, but I have done no more than warn you that you were doing wrong and becoming the very sort of man your father, the good King, wanted you NOT to be. Now I must take stronger measures, for you have paid no attention to my warnings.

"Really you are more like the wild animals than a man and a prince. You roar with anger like a lion. You are greedy for fine food and clothes and a good time, as a wolf is greedy for its prey. You are untrue to your friends, like a treacherous snake. You even turn upon the kind tutor who was your father's firmest friend, and who would like to help you, too, if you would let him. You are as disagreeable as an angry bull, that keeps everyone out of its neighborhood, because everyone knows it is not safe to go near."

The Fairy's voice now roared forth in terrible tones, which made Prince Darling shake from head to heel:

"Therefore, I condemn you to have a hideous body like your ugly character--part lion, part wolf, part snake, and part bull."

The Prince put his hand to his head, because he felt as if he should weep at this awful sentence. He found his face covered with a lion's shaggy beard; a bull's horns had grown out of his skull. He looked at his feet: they were those of a wolf. His body was the long slimy body of a snake.

The palace had disappeared, and he stood beside a clear lake in a deep forest. He shuddered with horror when he saw his reflection in the lake. His horror turned to rage when he heard the Fairy Truth say:

"Your punishment has just begun. Your pride will be hurt still more when you fall into the hands of your own subjects. And that is what is going to happen to you."

Just as the Fairy said the Prince fell into the hands of his subjects, and in a most humiliating way, for he was caught in a trap which had been set to catch bears. Thus he was captured alive and led into the chief city of the kingdom.

There was no mourning in the town because of the Prince's death, by a thunderbolt, as they supposed. Instead, there was great rejoicing, for Suliman had been made King by the people, who were sick and tired of the way Prince Darling had misruled them.

"Long live King Suliman!" they shouted. "His rule will bring us peace and prosperity."

In the middle of the public park sat King Suliman. Just as the Prince, in his ugly disguise came up, Suliman was saying:

"Prince Darling is not dead, as you suppose. I have accepted the crown only until he comes back, for the Fairy Truth says he may still return, a good and just man like his father. For myself, I want nothing more than to see Prince Darling come back a worthy ruler for this mighty kingdom."

This speech made the Prince feel very much ashamed of himself, for it showed plainly that the Fairy was right, and that he himself had misjudged Suliman.

Meantime the Prince was put in the menagerie, and people pointed him out as a most strange beast, the only one of his sort ever found anywhere. The Prince was beginning to feel like his old, gentle self. He was even good to his keeper, although the keeper was anything but good to him.

One day a tiger broke through his cage and attacked the keeper. At first the Prince was pleased to see the keeper in danger of his life, and mused: "When he's dead and out of the way I can easily escape."

But the Prince's punishment had not been in vain, for suddenly he began to think, "Well, the poor old keeper; after all I'm sorry for him!"

Then as if by magic the bars of the Prince's cage seemed to melt away, and he rushed out to rescue the keeper who had treated him so badly. The man was more terrified than ever when he saw the huge monster loose. But imagine his amazement when the beast fell upon the tiger, instead of crushing his (the keeper's) life out, as he had feared.

Naturally the keeper was filled with gratitude. The strange beast's kindness made him feel ashamed when he remembered how badly he had treated the animal.

The keeper now tried to stroke the beast's head, by way of gratitude, when to his amazement he found himself stroking, not a wild animal, but a gentle little dog.

The keeper picked up the dog in his arms and took him to the King, to whom he told the strange story of his rescue. The Queen liked the dog, and decided to keep him for a pet. Unluckily for Prince Darling, however, she took him to the court doctor, who decided that too much food would be very bad for the dog, and ordered that he be fed nothing but bread, and very little at that! So Prince Darling prized the small amount of bread he got very highly indeed.

Once Prince Darling trotted off with his little loaf of bread--all he would get to eat that day--to a brook some distance away. Strange to tell, the brook was gone, and in its place was a huge house. Prince Darling thought the persons who lived there must be fabulously rich, because the house was made of precious stones and gold, and the people were dressed in the most elegant and expensive clothes. He heard music, and saw people feasting and dancing.

Yet the people who came out of the house presented the most forlorn appearance--ragged, and sick, and half starved. Prince Darling saw a poor young girl, and his heart was filled with pity. She was eating grass and leaves, she was so hungry. Prince Darling was hungry himself, but he thought:

"I can't be as hungry as that poor girl, and to-morrow I'll have another loaf." So he gave the bread to her, and she ate it eagerly.

Suddenly there was a great outcry, and the Prince, running in the direction whence the noise came, saw Celia being dragged against her will into this mysterious house. The poor little dog could do nothing to help her. Then he thought sadly: "I am very angry now with these terrible people who treat Celia so badly; but not long ago I was myself threatening to have her killed!"

And the little dog, feeling quite forlorn, put its tail between its legs, as dogs often do, and went off to watch the house where Celia was imprisoned.

An upper window was opened, and a girl threw out some food. The dog thought this was because the girl had a kind heart. But when it started to eat, the one to whom it had given the bread but a short time before cried out: "Stop! If you touch that you will die! That food came from the house of pleasure, and is deadly poison."

So once again the Prince found that his good action had been rewarded. And the Fairy Truth, to show her approval, transformed the little dog into a lovely white dove.

The dove flew straight into the house of pleasure, searching for Celia. No sign of her could it find there, as she had escaped. Therefore it decided to fly and fly all around the world until it did get her.

One day it came to a desert island, where no living person could be seen, nor any green tree to light upon. It searched about, and after a time found a cavern, and in it was Celia, sharing a simple meal with an old hermit.

Prince Darling flew right up to Celia, lighted on her shoulder, and tried in all the ways a dove knows to show its affection for her. Celia in return stroked it gently, although she, of course, had no idea who it was. Indeed, Celia seemed delighted to have found a new friend, and said softly:

"I am glad you have come to me, and I will care for you and love you always."

Celia did not expect the dove to understand what she said. The hermit understood, however, and asked her whether she really meant it.

"Ah! Celia," Prince Darling exclaimed, "with my whole heart I hope you do mean it!" And the astonished Celia turned and saw Prince Darling himself standing before her.

"Celia will not stop loving you now, Prince Darling," said Fairy Truth, who had been disguised as the hermit all this time. "She has loved you from the beginning, and now that you have started on the road to goodness I know she will gladly join her fate with yours."

Then Celia and Prince Darling threw themselves at the Fairy's feet, and thanked her a thousand times over for bringing them together again after all their trials.

"Come, my children," said the Fairy, "if you had not helped me I could not have brought this to pass. And now, let's go back to Prince Darling's kingdom, for I know King Suliman is waiting eagerly for a chance to give back the throne."

The Fairy had scarcely stopped speaking when they found themselves in the royal palace. King Suliman was overjoyed to see the Prince return, and gladly yielded the throne to him again.

When the Prince was crowned King for the second time he also put on again the little gold ring which he had thrown away so long before. He and Celia gave their whole hearts to the effort to govern the kingdom justly and kindly. You will know that they succeeded very well, when I tell you that the magic ring never again pricked Prince Darling's finger.

RUMPELSTILTSKIN

ADAPTED FROM THE GRIMM BROTHERS

Once upon a time, in a kingdom far away from here, there lived a miller who was very proud, and a King who was exceedingly fond of money.

The miller had a lovely daughter, and he could not say enough about her beauty and cleverness. He used to tell all the men who brought their wheat to his mill, to be ground into flour, of the wonderful things this daughter could do "to perfection."

One day, in a fit of boasting, the miller told the servant who had brought flour from the King's household, that he had a daughter who could actually turn straw into pure gold by spinning it.

The messenger was astonished, and could hardly wait to get back to the palace and see the King. He knew how mad the King was about money, and wanted to be the first to tell him of the miller's extraordinary daughter, who could make him vastly rich so easily.

The King was tremendously excited by the story, just as his servant had hoped. He sent at once for the miller.

"My man," the King said, "I hear you have a daughter who can spin straw into gold. That's a fine story, but you can hardly expect me to believe it without seeing it. Have your daughter come here this evening."

So the miller went home and told his daughter that the King wanted to see her. He dared not tell her why. Naturally, the girl was pleased and flattered. She put on her best dress and braided her hair very carefully. Then she went to the palace.

"So you're the miller's daughter," said the King. "Now we'll see whether you can really spin straw into gold."

The girl thought the King must be crazy. She felt even surer of it when he took her into a great room full of straw with a spinning wheel in one corner.

A spinning wheel, you know, is an old-fashioned machine for making flax and cotton into yarn and thread.

"If you don't spin all this straw into gold before the night is over, you will die," the King said, and closed the door.

The poor little miller's daughter sat down in front of the spinning wheel and cried and cried. She didn't know how to spin straw into gold any more than you or I do, and she didn't want to die a bit.

"Well, well, what's all this crying for?" said a tiny voice at her ear.

So many queer things had happened that night that it did not seem at all strange to have a man appear out of nowhere. He was not exactly a man, though. He was just a tiny little Dwarf. And the miller's daughter told him all her troubles.

"Why, that's nothing," the little man said; "I can spin that straw into gold myself. But I won't do it for nothing. What will you give me for doing it?"

The girl had a necklace she was very proud of. She hated to part with it, but she gave it to the little man. He sat promptly down at the spinning wheel, and in a jiffy the golden straws were flying through his hands, and turning into threads of pure gold. Long before daybreak the room was full of gold instead of straw.